Kim's pregnancy with Lucas was pretty text book and things went well other than typical aches and pains. She knew she wanted to have an unmedicated labor and delivery in part to avoid and any complications with breastfeeding. She carried to 41 weeks and went into labor on her own. After laboring at home with her husband and mother, Kim arrived at the hospital already 10 cms dilated. Lucas was born about an hour later, just after her midwife arrived.

Lucas latched immediately but they then began to struggle from there. Kim had placed so much weight on nursing that she was devastated. They used an SNS the first couple of weeks, saw lactation consultants but after a friend finally reminded her that worrying so much was preventing her from enjoying that special time she decided to exclusively pump instead and continued until Lucas' first birthday.

Kim and her husband knew they wanted to have their children close together so they started trying shortly thereafter and were grateful to conceive right away. Her pregnancy with Jaime was free from most discomfort but more difficult in the sense that she was chasing Lucas around this time. Kim went in for her 38 week appointment to learn that she was already dilating and effaced. Her mom wasn't scheduled to come into town for a couple of days so she asked her come in early and put herself on bed rest for 24 hours in hopes of slowing things down. Once her mother arrived, they took a walk and her water broke. Kim headed to the hospital, expecting things to go as swiftly as they had with Lucas but it was a much different environment for her. She ultimately asked for an epidural but cried when she got it thinking that it was going to cause difficulty within her breastfeeding relationship with Jamie.

Once the medication kicked in she felt amazing, her body released and she was suddenly ready to birth her baby. Jamie latched and nursed well from the start but things were quite painful due to a lip and tongue tie. After a revision at 5 days old, the pain lessened and they're still going strong. Kim pumped in the beginning so she could also provide milk for Lucas and donated 500oz to another family. Kim says that rather than provide healing, being able to nurse Jamie reopened old wounds. In hindsight she thinks he likely had an undiagnosed tongue tie but she's having a hard time letting go of her emotions surrounding being unable to nurse him directly.

Kim believes in the power of our stories and ourselves and wanted to add her voice to this powerful group of women. Where she is right now is with her boys and herself was so important for her to capture and continue to celebrate.